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St. Joe’s receives $400,000 grant

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News from Providence St. Joseph Medical Center

POLSON – Patients at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center will soon benefit from access to the latest computed tomography (CT) diagnostic technology made possible through a grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program.

Helmsley has awarded Providence St. Joseph Medical Center $400,000 for a new 64-slice CT scanner. CT scanners provide essential diagnostic images of structures inside the body. A new CT scanner will allow for faster scans that produce high-quality images, allowing medical staff to quickly determine health status and course of treatment while giving patients access to up-to-date healthcare technology close to home.

“We are extremely thankful for the generous gift from the Helmsley Charitable Trust. The CT equipment will allow our patients to receive minimal levels of radiation with exceptional image quality and will keep our patients close to home, especially with treacherous roads in the winter,” said James Kiser, CEO, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center.

Providence St. Joseph Medical Center is one of 41 grant recipients across the region to benefit from this round of funding to purchase CT scanners. Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program has granted over $30 million to support the purchase of new, 32-slice or higher CT scanners in a seven-state region.

“Our goal is to ensure that people who live in rural America have access to quality healthcare as close to home as possible,” said Walter Panzirer, a trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “To achieve this, rural hospitals need to be viable and they need to have up-to-date equipment, so patients can receive essential healthcare services locally. This initiative is one of many that aims to improve healthcare access and health outcomes across the upper Midwest.”

The funding initiative was the result of a survey of Critical Access Hospitals in the Rural Healthcare Program’s seven-state funding region. Capital equipment, particularly CT scanners, was identified as a top need by many hospitals. In addition, a new Medicare policy went into effect January 1, 2016, that reduced reimbursement for certain studies on CT scanners that do not meet specific radiation dose requirements. Since 2015, the Helmsley Charitable Trust has awarded 78 grants totaling over $30 million to outfit hospitals with new, state-of-the-art CT scanners.

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